Kato's Pens

Not much information is available about Kato Seisakushô pen company, but it attracts a lot of expectation among pen enthusiasts. Possibly, its rarity makes it all the more appealing.

These pens have a very irregular distribution. The main sources are two websites –Pen House and Pen Meister. Lately, Kato Seisakushô pens could be seen at a only couple of shops in Tokyo, which is the only Japanese city I truly know, and in the catalog of an eBay vendor. Most of the information come from those websites and is written in Japanese. However, some translations can be found in some fora. And that is basically it.

The scarce literature on the Net is a mixture of facts and myths. Mr. Kiyoshi Kato founded his workshop in Osaka after –they claim— fathering fountain pens in Arabia and creating some pen factories in Egypt. All in the years of the Second World War… Mr. Kato was also responsible for some pens of the Italian brand Visconti.


This company’s selling point is that the pens are hand crafted in celluloid: “Celluloid Pen / Hand Crafted / Made in Japan”, that is all we can read on the cardboard boxes. On the pen, the only written sign is on the nib: they are either Schmidt –those in steel— or just “made in Japan” for those in 14 K gold. Again, that is all the information we can get from the pen itself.

Now, how interesting are these pens? Yes, they are made in celluloid. Other than that, most of them employ the international cartridge/converter system and implement steel nibs. Higher grade pens use 14 K gold nibs, ebonite feeds and integrated piston self-filling systems. Such is mine—a 800F model about which I should write a full review.

(Katoseisakusho 800F – Sailor Hiroko’s Green)

Bruno Taut
March 28, 2011
[labels: Japón, Katoseisakusho]